Thomas Sim LEE

1745-1819

LEE, Thomas Sim, (father of John Lee), a Delegate from Maryland; born near Upper Marlboro, Prince Georges County, Md., October 29, 1745; completed preparatory studies; held several local offices; member of the provincial council in 1777; governor of Maryland 1779-1783; Member of the Continental Congress in 1783; member of the house of delegates in 1787; declined to serve in the convention which drafted the Constitution of the United States, but consented to serve in the state convention for the ratification of the Federal Constitution in 1788; again governor of Maryland 1792-1794; effected the organization of the state militia while he was governor and took an active part in the suppression of the Whisky Insurrection in western Pennsylvania and Maryland; appointed to the state senate in 1794, but declined to serve; again elected governor, but declined in 1798; retired from public life and engaged in the management of his estate, âNeedwood,â in Frederick County, Md., until his death, November 9, 1819; interment in a private cemetery at Melwood, Prince Georges County, Md.; reinterment in the Roman Catholic Cemetery, near Upper Marlboro, Md., April 17, 1888.

Bibliography

McHenry, James. A Sidelight on History; Being the Letters of James McHenry, [to Thomas Sim Lee, Governor of Maryland, Written during the Yorktown Campaign, 1871. 1931. Reprint, New York: The New York Times, [1971].

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present